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With Christmas just around the corner, how do you make sure you don’t undo all your hard work in one foul swoop? Follow these 10 top tips to stay fit for Christmas.

If you hadn’t realised already, Christmas is just around the corner. That fat bearded guy is making his last checks and revving up the reindeer. And he’s not that far away from having millions of mince pies in one night! So how can you avoid turning into something that resembles Santa himself? Because temptation is at every turn and that a calorie deficit could be the hardest thing to maintain. So that’s why I’ve got 10 top tips for you to stay fit for Christmas. Follow these and take the worry out of the festive season.

If you want to know how to measure body fat percentage accurately then you’ll want to read this article.

Read on to discover 6 ways to measure body fat percentage accurately and the pros and cons of each one.

To shift your body fat you must first know your body fat. Now I don’t mean you should get to know your body fat on first name terms. This isn’t some form of new age approach where you give your body fat a name like Sophie and spend time talking to it and politely asking her to leave.

No. This is about establishing your start point. Your body fat percentage. If you know where you are and where you want to get to, the process gets that bit easier.

Fail to get step one right and your fitness journey could be a path of long, protracted turmoil and stagnation. And we don’t want that to happen so let’s get you off on the right foot.

In this article we’ll be getting to know all about Sophie, sorry, your body fat percentage. What it is, what’s a good amount to aim for, why you need to measure it, and how the hell you measure body fat accurately.

Knowing your body fat percentage isn’t 100% critical to a successful fitness programme, but it can be useful. And this is why I personally won’t start a client programme without first understanding this piece of information.

So get ready to say your goodbyes to Sophie. The bitch is gonna be packing her bags and getting ready to leave real soon.

Hands up if you over indulged this Christmas. Was it just 1 day? 3 days? More???

And with the main indulgences on the holiday period behind you, did you spring out of bed this morning, eager to smash out a post-Christmas chest workout (because let’s face it everyone is going to be doing chest the first day back)?

Did you wake up and leap out from under the covers with the breathless anticipation of the day ahead?

Did the thought and excitement of getting back to your regular gym and eating regime just become all too much and have you almost at bursting point?

I can imagine it was like that Christmas Day feeling when you were 10 years old. Never really going to sleep properly on Christmas Eve and waking up a 4am, rushing into your parents’ room and proceeding to jump on their bed until they caved in an begrudgingly trudge downstairs with you.

But instead of rushing downstairs to open presents, you’re making a beeline for your gym bag. You throw on your brand new threads that Santa brought you, mix up a bit of pre-workout, grab a protein shake for after your workout and off you go.

Or is that all just wishful thinking?

After a few days of over indulgence with the family, do you really feel like getting back to the old routine? Doesn’t a another lie in and a day of eating some more good food sound like a much better deal?

Exercising your way out of a food coma isn’t the most appealing of propositions. After all, the new diet starts in the New Year right? So you’ve got at least another 5 days or so to work on that food baby that’s growing inside of you.

Visualising yourself as a slightly fatter, slightly hungover version of yourself sweating out that turkey dinner and copious amounts of mince pies is the last straw. You turn over, curl up under your nice warm duvet, like a hibernating bear and steal a few more hours of shut eye before you have to face the world again.

So how do you get back on track after all that over indulgence of the last week?

How do you motivate yourself to get back into the routine?

How do you avoid the temptations that are still littered throughout the house?

How do you start making good food choices again when the fridge is seemingly bursting with treats?

After a few days in New York / New Jersey I can truly attest that winter is well and truly here.

Walking around NYC in just a T-shirt and a fairly thing coat was definitely one of the worst decisions I could’ve made. Stepping out of Penn Station I should have been amazed by the sights in front of me. Yetall I could think about was making a beeline for the nearest store where I could buy a decent jacket and gloves.

Now, I’m sure for the average New Yorker that wasn’t a particularly cold day, but for me, it felt like deepest, darkest Siberia.

I felt like Luke in the Wampa ice cave. Hands turning to ice blocks and low level numbness spreading throughout my body. I would’ve given anything to curl up inside the warm belly of a Tauntaun even if they do smell bad on the inside.

Now that I’m back in the UK things are a little bit warmer, but those cold, dark mornings have set in and are now the norm.

If you’re like me and train first thing in the morning, your daily routine starts 10 minutes earlier than normal to get the car warmed up, defrosted and ready to roll. Sitting in the car waiting for the screen to clear you pray for your bones to stop shaking in their frame.

This is the true definition of dedication. Finding the motivation to lifts weights in the gym when you’d much prefer to be curled up under your thick duvet with an extra hour on the alarm clock before you have to muster the effort to drag yourself out of bed and go to work.

It’s Christmas Eve Eve (I’m using artistic license to claim that as a day). It’s 7:30am, it’s dark and a bit of a ghost town as I look out of the window of the local coffee shop.

This has to be the calm before the storm. Surely in a few hours time as the sun rises and the nation slowly gets to grips with the fact that there’s just 48 hours to go until the big day, this place will come to life.

The car park will be filled to the brim with cars nested side by side like sardines in a tin.

Latecomers to the shopping centre will be on the hunt for that one available space out of thousands. Like a Great White sensing a drop of blood in the ocean, they stalk shoppers loaded up with bags, trudging back to their cars to free themselves of the weight.

But are they leaving or are they heading back for round 2? Whatever happens, one thing’s for sure. They’re gonna need a bigger boat!

Not everyone’s a morning person, but it certainly works f0r me. I’ve definitely been the early bird catching the worm instead of a night Owl. I find it the most productive time of the day.

Get the gym stuff out the way. Get the adrenaline flowing and hit the day hard from the start and don’t let up until it’s time to hit the hay.

It’s a habit that I’ve formed over the years. And this is what I want to talk about in today’s blog.

How to form positive habits to keep you progressing forward with your fitness goals each and every day…

It’s been a crazy last few days. I literally don’t know what time of day, or even day of the week it is most of the time. My phone battery is pretty much worn out by lunch time with me continually checking the time and date to get my brain back on track.

Honestly, I thought it was Saturday today!

It would be nice to say that I’ve been spending that time being rushed off my feet with all things Christmas related, but that’s not a luxury I’ve afforded myself this year. Sunday still seems like a million miles away for me right now.

Metallica’s ‘A Year and a Half in the Life of…’

Over the next few weeks I’m going to be doing a series of shorter blog posts that are intended to a bit of a ‘Day in the Life of..’ type of thing.

I got the idea after watching an old DVD I had lying around. Metallica’s ‘A Year and a Half in the Life of…’

I’d dread to think how many times I’ve seen that thing. It was on constant repeat when I was a kid, right after the release of the Black Album.

Back in the early 90’s it was all still old style VHS, and me and my brother must have pretty much wore that thing out! Not to mention the fact our parents probably lost their minds with us reciting every line word for word.

It’s what inspired me to take up the guitar and make an attempt at becoming a rock star. For the detectives out there, you can find some old videos and tracks of my band if you scour YouTube, MySpace (if it still exists), and Facebook.

You can have a pretty good laugh at my long hair and lame effort at a beard.

Now it’s Sad But True that this series of posts probably isn’t going to be as exciting, funny, and memorable as that documentary, but let’s see how close we can get.

What things go into your gym bag for every workout? Do you even have a gym bag?

Is it just a case of throwing in a towel, a change of clothes, and your padlock and off you go?

A well-packed gym bag is something not to be overlooked. There are some essential items you need on the gym floor that will improve your performance and motivation. With a few extra minutes spent preparing what goes into your bag, you can reap some great extra benefits from your workouts.

I’ve got 10 top tips for you that will make sure your gym bag is filled with all the essential items needed for a great workout each and every time you set foot in the gym.

These tips will help you lift more, prevent injury, and most of all make sure you enjoy those training sessions. Because if it’s not fun, what’s the point, right?

Whether you’re just starting out or you’re a veteran of the Iron Paradise, you’ll benefit from this article. Let’s not waste anymore time and get right down to it.

Iron Paradise Fitnessis now LIVE!...

In the immortal words of the UFC’s Bruce Buffer, “We are LIVE”. But not for 5 rounds in the UFC Lightweight division. No, that’s in a few weeks time when McGregor meets Alvarez for the championship.

The big news in town right now is the relaunch of the all new Iron Paradise Fitness website.

After weeks and months of 12 hour days and toiling away in front of my PC, the site is finally finished and ready to share with you. It’s been a labour of love to get the site up and running and I’m really proud it.

There’s a new logo, new branding, new coaching services and even some awesome new FREE stuff for all you lovely people.